Pages

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

13 Days of Halloween: Day 12, Natalie G. Owens

Hello world!

Welcome to Day 12 of the 13 Days of Halloween, when the authors of the Tales of the Mist anthology go trick or treatin'! Our treat: 13 days of fun guest posts by each author of the just released TALES FROM THE MIST anthology. Ready to go? Yes? Here we go, then... :)

Before I start, I'd like to share that TALES FROM THE MIST is currently on sale at $4.99 through October 31st. After this date, the regular price of $5.99 will apply. The book can be purchased from the following retailers:

So on this note, I leave the floor to ... myself! :) I am very proud to be part of this fine collection. All the stories in this anthology are amazing and engaging. You will love it!

My Brand of Horror

Until I
wrote my story “A Kind of Judgment”, I’d never written a story of horror
before. I also used to think (wrongly, of course) that horror as a genre involved
lots of blood, gore and perhaps vampires or zombies. I did always love the
old-fashioned gothic tales set in the Victorian era, a fascinating period when
the Occult and other mysteries were extensively explored. Based on this, I
realized that there need not be blood or mutilated body parts for a story to be
frightening… and that the horror genre can be as diverse, colorful and interesting
as one could possibly imagine.

In fact, in the
horror I write, there is no gratuitous violence, a throat slit, or a head axed.
The stories that come to me are drawn from life and derive from a situation
that is completely plausible. For this is the type of horror that I find truly
frightening – a lost life, a past of tragedy and regret, a forgettable present,
and a hopeless future. It is the tragic circumstance of the human condition
that fascinates me in its detail – the failings of the individual spirit, and
the consequences of flawed decisions. This is how the “Faustian Fantasy Tales”
were born. I didn’t originally intend them to be this way when I initially
published the first one – “A Kind of Judgment”. But the name was given to me by
a reviewer, and the story included in “Tales from the Mist” – “An Inconvenient
Debt” – follows suit on that path.

Because when
I think about man’s deepest desires, and the fact that some will do anything in
this world to fulfill them – I believe that this is something many of us face
at one time or other. How many times have we compromised in a way we disliked?
How many times have we sacrificed something to get something else that is
greater or better in our eyes? How many times would we sacrifice ourselves and
our very well-being for someone we love… or a thing we covet? These are the
questions asked in “An Inconvenient Debt”.

I find that in
any story, having a few ounces of heartbreak, a worthy baggage of misfortune –
not silly misgivings – makes for deep, captivating characters. It doesn’t matter if I am writing romance or
dark fiction. When I wrote both “A Kind of Judgment” and “An Inconvenient
Debt”, I felt that they were those types of stories that gave me no easy
answer. The scariest part for me was the thought that somewhere in this world
(perhaps next door or a block down from you) live people just like the
characters in these stories, with the same hopes and fears, the same fate, and
the same damaged life. What then happens to these people and the choices they
make is the true horror for me.

Speaking of horror... One of the major characters in AN INCONVENIENT DEBT is Jonas, who is ... interesting, to say the least. If you'd like to learn more about him, please check out my other short, A KIND OF JUDGMENT, where Jonas makes an appearance:

So, what do you consider truly frightening horror? In what way has horror touched you, or have you touched horror? The kind of horror that doesn’t let you sleep at night… This is the perfect timing to discuss this, on the cusp of Halloween, one of the most fascinating times of the year :).

Tell me your thoughts, and I'll pick two winners who'll receive a copy of A KIND OF JUDGMENT in the format of their choice.

About TALES
FROM THE MIST:

TALES FROM THE MIST will take you on a journey into
the dark world of the paranormal. These twelve stories vary in their
degree of horror, yet all reach across the boundaries of their genres into the
chilling realms of the macabre. Witches, ghosts, shape-shifters and
vampire rats are some of the creatures that reign within these pages.

About AN
INCONVENIENT DEBT:

A mother makes a Faustian bargain for her son’s
freedom. But can she truly meet the cost when his real prison demands payment
of a different debt?

About me:

Natalie G. Owens got her first taste of serious writing by
penning award–winning poetry, as well as feature articles for college and local
publications, in her native Malta. She sold her first book to a small publisher
in 2007 and is currently indie published. Her favorite stories to write are
romances with a dark edge featuring brooding heroes, strong heroines, exotic
settings, and a good dash of fantasy. Daydreaming tops her list of hobbies,
followed by reading, cooking, traveling, sharing good times with family and
friends, and ogling shoe store displays. You can find out more about Natalie
and her work on her website (http://www.nataliegowens.com).

When she
speaks, the sound pours inside me, down to my tummy, wet and warm. But the
sound I hear is different. Not a voice, something else.

Zoom. Whoosh.

I swing with
her body, from side to side. She moves like this as she stands, waiting for
something. The wetness around me is hot, bad, not nice. It’s because she’s
crying. She jerks forward and I get a bit warmer. I feel her touch from inside.
Her hand is so close, I have tingles. If only I could reach it from here. She
rubs, rubs.

Feels good,
so good.

Now she
jerks again and screams.

Screech.

I fall with
her.

Can’t move,
don’t want to move right now, just go to sleep, but she won’t let me. Someone’s
pressing gently on her, on me. Another voice shouts. I suck my thumb faster and
touch my face.

My head goes
around and around as everything around me is sticky and ugly. I don’t like
this. Before was better, even when she sounded sad, when she screamed and the
man screamed back at her. He screamed at her a lot, all the time. It was a
deep, scary voice–not like hers at all. It yelled over her, louder, so much I
couldn’t hear her any more.

Now I don’t
hear her either. I hear the other voice, this new voice, say, “Call an
ambulance! This woman’s pregnant!”

There’s more
shouting but I hear only a little anymore as my ears close up.

The liquid
thickens around me, but she doesn’t talk, rub or move with me.